1995 Articles

Wavelets for Contrast Enhancement of Digital Mammography

Laine, Andrew F.; Fan, Jian; Yang, Wuhai

Multiresolution representations provided an adaptive mechanism for the local emphasis of features of importance to mammography. In general, improvements in image contrast for multiscale image processing algorithms were superior to those obtained using existing competitive algorithms. These initial results are encouraging and suggest that wavelet based image processing algorithms could play an important role in improving the imaging performance of digital mammography. In part 2, features blended into the mammograms were "idealized" representations of the types of objects that are of primary interest to mammographers. The resultant mammographic images were appropriate for the purpose of demonstrating improved image contrast made possible by wavelet based image processing algorithms. These images were also useful for comparing multiscale wavelet based algorithms with existing image processing algorithms. The test results obtained in this study, however, cannot be directly extrapolated to clinical mammography. In addition, it is also important to study possible image artifacts introduced by new wavelet filters, which may increase the false positive rate.